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Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy, July 2009, p. 2857-2864, Vol. 53, No. 7
0066-4804/09/$08.00+0 doi:10.1128/AAC.00030-09
Copyright © 2009, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.

Sansom Institute, School of Pharmacy and Medical Sciences, University of South Australia, Adelaide, South Australia 5000, Australia,1 Facility for Anti-Infective Drug Development and Innovation, Faculty of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences, Monash University, Parkville, Victoria 3052, Australia,2 Department of Microbiology and Infectious Diseases,3 Department of Pharmacy, Women's and Children's Hospital, North Adelaide, South Australia 5006, Australia4
Received 9 January 2009/ Returned for modification 14 March 2009/ Accepted 13 April 2009
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Colistin (polymyxin E, Fig. 1) is an important member of the polymyxin class of cationic polypeptide antibiotics, with the major components being colistin A (polymyxin E1) and colistin B (polymyxin E2). It is administered to humans as colistin methanesulfonate (CMS), an inactive prodrug that requires conversion to colistin for antibacterial activity (3). After largely being abandoned for decades as a result of its potential to cause nephrotoxicity, its use has increased in recent years due to the lack of other effective treatment options currently available against multidrug-resistant gram-negative bacteria (15).
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FIG. 1. Chemical structure of colistin. Colistin A (polymyxin E1), R = (+)-6-methyloctanoate; colistin B (polymyxin E2), R = (+)-6-methylheptanoate.
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A previous study found a very low renal clearance of colistin after intravenous administration of colistin (as its sulfate salt) in rats, consistent with extensive renal tubular reabsorption (14). However, nothing is known of the mechanisms involved in the renal tubular transport of colistin. The rat isolated perfused kidney (IPK) model is ideal for examining the renal disposition, including tubular cell transport mechanisms, of endogenous compounds and drugs (2). Thus, the present study was designed to investigate the renal disposition and transport mechanisms of colistin in the rat IPK by perfusing colistin, in the absence or presence of several potential renal transport inhibitors.
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The isolated perfused rat kidney preparation and experimental design.
The study was approved by the Animal Ethics Committee of the Institute of Medical and Veterinary Science (IMVS). Male Sprague-Dawley rats (400 to 450 g) from the IMVS were maintained at
25°C on a 12-h light/dark cycle with free access to food and water.
The IPK preparation was based on a previously published method (30). An equilibration of 20 min was allowed after placing the kidney in the thermostatic cabinet before adding [3H]inulin (130 kBq) into the perfusate reservoir. After 5 min, the perfusate volume in the recirculating system was adjusted to 160 ml by the addition or removal of perfusate. For each perfusion, colistin sulfate stock solution (1 mg/ml, 0.32 ml) was added into the reservoir as a bolus to achieve an initial concentration of 2 µg/ml (equivalent to
1.27 µM summed colistin A and B); this time was defined as 0 min.
A total of 20 perfusions were performed, divided into four experimental groups (n = 5 per group). Each group was perfused with colistin in the absence or presence of incrementally escalating concentrations of TEA, Gly-Gly, or HCl. Each perfusion was divided into period I (5 to 30 min), period II (35 to 55 min), period III (60 to 80 min), and period IV (85 to 105 min). The stock solution of TEA, Gly-Gly, or HCl was added into the reservoir as a bolus at 30, 55, and 80 min to achieve low, medium, and high concentrations, respectively (Table 1). A 5-min equilibration was allowed after the addition of colistin or the inhibitors; urine was then collected over 5-min intervals within each period, and perfusate samples (0.6 ml) were collected from the reservoir at the midpoint of each interval. Urine volume was measured gravimetrically in preweighed collection vials and urine flow rate (UFR) was calculated accordingly. Immediately after completion of the perfusion, aliquots of the perfusate (100 µl) or urine (50 µl) samples were added to scintillation vials and mixed with 3 ml of aqueous counting scintillant, and the levels of radioactivity were counted by using a liquid scintillation analyzer (model 2200CA; Packard, Canberra, Australia). The remaining samples were stored at –20°C pending analysis for colistin.
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TABLE 1. IPK study design for adding the potential renal transport inhibitors
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0.5 ml of ultrafiltrate. The absence of albumin in the ultrafiltrate was confirmed by using Multiple Reagent Strips. The strips were capable of detecting a loss of 1% of the protein through the membrane. Our preliminary study indicated there was no binding of colistin to the ultrafiltration apparatus. The concentrations of colistin A and B sulfate in perfusate and ultrafiltrate were determined by the liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) method described below. The fu of colistin A and B was calculated as the ratio of the respective concentration in ultrafiltrate to that in nonfiltered perfusate. The possible effect of the high concentration of each potential inhibitor (Table 1) on the protein binding of colistin was evaluated. Analytical methods. Concentrations of colistin A and B in the perfusate and urine samples from the IPK study, as well as the ultrafiltrate and perfusate samples from the protein binding study, were determined by using a validated LC-MS/MS method (18).
Pharmacokinetic and statistical analysis.
Glomerular filtration rate (GFR) was calculated as the renal excretory clearance of [3H]inulin, based upon the disintegrations per minute (dpm) for the perfusate and urine samples collected in each 5-min interval and the corresponding UFR:
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The renal clearances (CLR) of colistin A and B were calculated as:
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The clearance ratio (CR) for colistin was calculated as follows:
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The averages of values for each 5-min interval were calculated within each group. Averages of values for each period within each group were presented as mean ± the standard deviation (SD). The parameters for periods II, III, and IV in each group were compared to both the values for period I within the same group as well as the values in the corresponding period of the control group using analysis of variance, with a Dunnett's test used for post hoc comparison. One-sample and paired student t tests were used as appropriate.
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6.4, and there were no period-dependent variations observed. For the HCl group, the mean (± the SD) values for perfusate pH in periods I, II, III, and IV were 7.49 ± 0.05, 7.18 ± 0.03, 6.86 ± 0.11, and 5.02 ± 0.65, respectively, and the corresponding values for urinary pH were 6.4, 6.2, 5.9, and 4.9. The perfusate and urinary pH of period II, III, and IV in the HCl group were significantly decreased from the value in period I of the same group (P < 0.05).
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FIG. 2. Kidney viability parameters—UFR (a), GFR (b), and %TRwater (c)—of the IPKs. The data are presented as the mean ± the SD (n = 5). *, P < 0.05 compared to the value for the control period (period I) in the same group and with the corresponding period in the control group.
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FIG. 3. Mean perfusate concentration versus time profiles of colistins A and B in each group. SD bars have been omitted for clarity.
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FIG. 4. Mean (± the SD) CLR for colistins A and B during each period in each group. The concentration of inhibitor in each period is given in Table 1. *, P < 0.05 compared to the values of period I in the same group and to the values in the same period of the control group.
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FIG. 5. Mean (± the SD) CR for colistins A and B during each period in each group. The concentration of inhibitor in each period is given in Table 1. *, P < 0.05 compared to the values of period I in the same group and to the values in the same period of the control group.
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80%, Fig. 2c) indicates that the tubular reabsorption of colistin must have been, at least in part, via a carrier-mediated mechanism; the same conclusion was reached from studies conducted in vivo in rats (14). The excellent agreement between the renal disposition observed in vivo and that in the IPK model supports the use of the latter model for investigating the mechanisms involved in the renal handling of colistin. Protein binding of colistin in IPK perfusate was studied by ultrafiltration using concentrations of colistin sulfate approximating the initial and end values measured during the perfusions. The fu values (0.42 for colistin A and 0.60 for colistin B) were similar to but slightly higher than the values for rat plasma reported by Li et al. (0.36 for colistin A and 0.52 for colistin B) (14), most likely because there was less protein in the perfusate.
A study in our laboratory indicated that colistin is very stable in perfusate at 37°C, with more than 90% remaining for up to 24 h. Therefore, accumulation within renal cells would most probably contribute to the low urinary recovery (<10%) of colistin eliminated from perfusate in the IPK study. Polymyxins have been found to be bound extensively and persistently to a range of organs after parenteral administration (5, 10, 11, 33) and tended to be eliminated very slowly from these tissues (33). Clearly, the carrier-mediated reabsorption observed and the postulated accumulation in the kidney may have implications for renal toxicity.
To study the renal transport of colistin, we focused on potential membrane transporters known to be responsible for the transport of substrates from the lumen back into tubular cells and which might account for the extensive net reabsorption observed for colistin in the current study and in vivo (14).
The existence of five
-amine groups (Fig. 1) with an estimated pKa of
10 means that colistin is a polycation under physiological conditions in both perfusate (pH
7.4) and urine (pH
6.4). Thus, it may be transported into tubular cells by the organic cation transporters, such as OCTN1 and OCTN2, on the brush-border membrane of tubular cells in the kidney (8). The latter functions mainly as a Na+/carnitine antiporter with a high affinity for carnitine, but it may, however, also mediate organic cation uniporter in a Na+-independent manner (8). On the other hand, OCTN1 is a multispecific, bidirectional, Na+-independent and pH-dependent cation transporter located mainly in the kidney. TEA is a typical substrate for rat OCTN1 (31, 32). It has been proposed that human OCTN1 may represent the luminal H+/cation antiporter which uses the H+ gradient generated by the sodium-proton antiporter to translocate intracellular cations across the brush-border membrane (9, 20). On the other hand, colistin features a peptide structure (heptapeptide ring and tripeptide side chain). Thus, we focused also on polypeptide transporters (PEPT1 and PEPT2) expressed in the renal cells which mediate the reabsorption of oligopeptides (23). In the kidney, PEPT2 is more abundant than PEPT1 and expressed predominantly in the apical membrane of the epithelial cells in the proximal tubule (19). Typical substrates for PEPT include di- or tripeptides, as well as β-lactam antibiotics and cephalosporins (12). Gly-Gly is the simplest dipeptide and a typical substrate/inhibitor for PEPT used in several previous studies (4, 28). Given the dependence of the OCTN1 transporter on pH (31, 32); therefore, its impact was also examined in the present study along with the other two inhibitors.
Renal excretion of colistin did not alter when coperfused with TEA or Gly-Gly at low and medium concentrations, which may suggest a high affinity between colistin and the renal transporters (most probably, OCTN1 and PEPT). The CR of TEA can be estimated to be between 2 and 3 after intravenous administration to dogs and humans (21, 22). Therefore, in the present study, the concentrations of TEA achieved in urine in period IV of the TEA treatment group would be much higher than the Km value for TEA (436 µM) observed with hOCTN1-transfected HEK293 cell (27). Thus, the increased CLR and CR of colistin in period IV may be due to the accelerated efflux of colistin accumulated within tubular cells, where OCTN1 functions as an organic cation/organic cation antiporter (Fig. 6c). Meanwhile, TEA may also competitively inhibit the reabsorption of colistin via OCTN1 (Fig. 6d).
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FIG. 6. Schematics of possible mechanisms for the renal tubular transport of colistin. (a) Tubular reabsorption of colistin, where OCTN1 functions as a proton/organic cation antiporter. (b) Increased proton gradient may accelerate the efflux of colistin from renal tubular cells. (c) TEA increases the efflux of colistin, where OCTN1 functions as an organic cation/organic cation antiporter. (d) TEA competitively inhibits the reabsorption of colistin via OCTN1, where OCTN1 functions as a proton/organic cation antiporter. (e) Gly-Gly may form a complex with colistin by forming ion pairs, which may disrupt the reabsorption of colistin via OCTN1.
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As mentioned previously, the pKa of colistin is
10; thus, the pH of perfusate and urine in each period would not substantially change its ionic status, with most of the drug remaining positively charged. The CLR and CR of colistin in the treatment periods of the HCl group were increased to the greatest extent compared to other inhibitor groups, which suggested that the renal transport of colistin is highly pH sensitive. In the HCl group, the perfusate pHs during periods II and III were slightly and moderately acidic, respectively, whereas the renal function remained unchanged, as shown by the kidney viability parameters. However, the GFR and %TRwater in period IV of the HCl group were significantly decreased (P < 0.05) compared to period I and proteinuria was observed, which together suggested that there was underlying pathology associated with severe acidosis. During periods I to III for this group, inhibition of the renal reabsorption of colistin (both colistins A and B) was associated with decreasing pH of the perfusate. The potential mechanisms most likely involve the bidirectional transport and pH-dependent properties of OCTN1. Efflux into urine of colistin which accumulated within tubular cells during period I was assumed to be accelerated by increased proton concentration in luminal urine in period II, III and IV (Fig. 6b); efflux during period IV may be a combination of this plus pathological damage to tubular cells.
The human homologs of OCTN1 and PEPT have tissue distributions, membrane localizations, transport properties, and substrate specificities very similar to those of the rat (12, 24, 25, 29, 31). Thus, it would be speculated that colistin may be transported in very similar manner in human kidney, as observed in the IPK in the present study.
In conclusion, this is the first study examining the renal disposition of colistin in the IPK and to explore its possible mechanisms of tubular transport. Colistin was rapidly eliminated from the perfusate, but only a relatively low fraction of colistin filtered at the glomerulus was excreted ultimately into urine. There was extensive net renal tubular reabsorption of colistin and a considerable amount of colistin that was removed from perfusate accumulated in the kidney tissue. Such cellular accumulation may have implications for its well-established renal toxicity. The tubular reabsorption of colistin was inhibited by TEA, Gly-Gly, and HCl. It was concluded that the reabsorption of colistin is most likely mediated by OCTN1 but it may also occur via PEPT.
Published ahead of print on 20 April 2009. ![]()
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